As if looking for a new home isn’t stressful enough, buyers now need to be on the lookout for scammers, too. We recently wrote about thieves stealing home titles online. Tap or click here for the frightening details and ways to protect your home.
But there’s a new twist to home-buying scams. You won’t believe how sneaky these schemes are. If you fall for them, it could cost you the down payment on your new home.
Read on to learn how this scam works and what you can do about it.
Here’s the backstory
Anybody who’s bought a house recently can attest to the mountain of paperwork it takes. The process can take several months to run its course.
A down payment is an official way to put a claim on a new home. This is usually a lump sum paid upfront that gets deducted from the final sale price. Of course, the house is as good as yours after you’ve made a down payment and the seller accepts it. Unfortunately, this is where the thieves come into play.
The FBI warns that scammers target home buyers through phishing attacks. But some take that a step further and infiltrate business email systems. Known as business email compromises (BEC), the crooks can send emails to whomever they please while pretending to be from a legitimate company.
Here’s how the scheme works. The criminal will send potential home…
